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. 2024 May 21;45(9):1-9.
doi: 10.1017/ice.2024.71. Online ahead of print.

Characteristics of healthcare personnel with SARS-CoV-2 infection: 10 emerging infections program sites in the United States, April 2020-December 2021

Nora Chea  1 , Taniece Eure  1 , Rebecca Alkis Ramirez  1 , Maria Zlotorzynska  1 , Gregory T Blazek  1   2 , Joelle Nadle  3 , Jane Lee  3 , Christopher A Czaja  4 , Helen Johnston  4 , Devra Barter  4 , Melissa Kellogg  4 , Catherine Emanuel  4 , James Meek  5 , Monica Brackney  5 , Stacy Carswell  6 , Stepy Thomas  6 , Scott K Fridkin  7 , Lucy E Wilson  8 , Rebecca Perlmutter  8 , Kaytlynn Marceaux-Galli  8 , Ashley Fell  9 , Sara Lovett  9 , Sarah Lim  9 , Ruth Lynfield  9 , Sarah Shrum Davis  10 , Erin C Phipps  10   11 , Marla Sievers  11 , Ghinwa Dumyati  12 , Christopher Myers  12 , Christine Hurley  12 , Erin Licherdell  12 , Rebecca Pierce  13 , Valerie L S Ocampo  13 , Eric W Hall  14 , Christopher Wilson  15 , Cullen Adre  15 , Erika Kirtz  15 , Tiffanie M Markus  16 , Kathryn Billings  16 , Ian D Plumb  17 , Glen R Abedi  17 , Jade James-Gist  17 , Shelley S Magill  1 , Cheri T Grigg  1
Affiliations

Characteristics of healthcare personnel with SARS-CoV-2 infection: 10 emerging infections program sites in the United States, April 2020-December 2021

Nora Chea et al. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. .

Abstract

Background: Understanding characteristics of healthcare personnel (HCP) with SARS-CoV-2 infection supports the development and prioritization of interventions to protect this important workforce. We report detailed characteristics of HCP who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 from April 20, 2020 through December 31, 2021.

Methods: CDC collaborated with Emerging Infections Program sites in 10 states to interview HCP with SARS-CoV-2 infection (case-HCP) about their demographics, underlying medical conditions, healthcare roles, exposures, personal protective equipment (PPE) use, and COVID-19 vaccination status. We grouped case-HCP by healthcare role. To describe residential social vulnerability, we merged geocoded HCP residential addresses with CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) values at the census tract level. We defined highest and lowest SVI quartiles as high and low social vulnerability, respectively.

Results: Our analysis included 7,531 case-HCP. Most case-HCP with roles as certified nursing assistant (CNA) (444, 61.3%), medical assistant (252, 65.3%), or home healthcare worker (HHW) (225, 59.5%) reported their race and ethnicity as either non-Hispanic Black or Hispanic. More than one third of HHWs (166, 45.2%), CNAs (283, 41.7%), and medical assistants (138, 37.9%) reported a residential address in the high social vulnerability category. The proportion of case-HCP who reported using recommended PPE at all times when caring for patients with COVID-19 was lowest among HHWs compared with other roles.

Conclusions: To mitigate SARS-CoV-2 infection risk in healthcare settings, infection prevention, and control interventions should be specific to HCP roles and educational backgrounds. Additional interventions are needed to address high social vulnerability among HHWs, CNAs, and medical assistants.

Keywords: COVID-19; Healthcare personnel; SARS-CoV-2; social vulnerability.

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Conflict of interest statement

Dr. Pierce reports personal fees from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.

Dr. Ghinwa Dumyati received a personal fee from Roche Diagnostic as part of an advisory team.

All other authors report no competing interests relevant to this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Healthcare personnel with SARS-CoV-2 infection in 2020 and 2021 by setting, role, demographics, and social vulnerability. Note:

  1. Other facilities include administrative building, correctional facility, dental facility, outpatient dialysis unit, emergency medical service, free-standing emergency room, hospice facility, laboratory, memory care facility, mental health facility, pharmacy, public health department, rehabilitation center, school, COVID-19 testing center, urgent care center.

  2. 24 HCP did not answer questions about sex or reported sex as unknown.

  3. 76 HCP did not answer questions about age.

  4. 168 HCP with missing or unknown ethnicity were grouped as non-Hispanic.

  5. 592 HCP were not matched with SVI data due to lack of valid addresses or residential addresses that were out of catchment areas.

See this image and copyright information in PMC

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